One of the other threads got me reminiscing. I have eaten “Jackfish” ie : chain pickerel before and while it was good to the taste, the bones were very numerous. Reeely bony. I have heard this and that about how to cook or clean Jacks in order to avoid the bones. Here is my question…Has anyone actually found a way that works to avoid the bones in Jacks? Anyone have any experience eating pike up Nort? They do have the same body structure.
They are tasty fish. I usually keep one if under 16". Scale and filet off bones. Put skin side down. With your fingertips feel over the filet. There are 2-3 rows of Y shaped bones that seem to run to just under the skin length ways the fish. Get filet knife and slice down edge of bones but, not thru the skin. Then bread and fry crispy brown. The hot grease softens up the exposed bones and you can eat it all.
J Ford
about the only way to fillet one avoiding all Y bones and saving enough meat is to have a 10+ lb northern. I’ve seen a few northern and muskees filleted up north avoiding all Y bones not much meat but delicious. Most everyone up there seems to think of them as a trash fish though.
Down here with the “monsters” we catch scale them fillet both sides, use a sharp knife and make many X pattern slices to the skin and as jford said fry them very crispy.
I will do or die catch some red fin for dad this summer.
< Evil is simply the absence of God >
There are vids on how to clean Northern on line. I been up in South Dakota for 6yrs and caught some northerns but the filleting process in crazy check it out. So I would think that a pickerel would be the same. Have fun though. Maybe the navy guy who wants to catch walleyes might know how to clean a northern/pike/pickerel.
Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting.
-Coach John Wooden
With shad, you can bake low and slow at 250 degrees for several hours and the bones dissolve, similar to canned salmon. I would think those yankee fish would act the same way.
Long Enuff
LOL “yankee fish” I like that
Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting.
-Coach John Wooden
Steak them up.
I know of no one in Wisconsin who considers northern pike a trash fish.
Very good. Not as good as perch, but good.
We would scale them, then take boiling water from a tea kettle and pour over the fish and scrape the skin to remove the slime prior to gutting/cleaning.